Object attachment and decision-making

Abstract

The perceived value of our possessions extends well beyond their monetary worth or utility. Many possessions produce abiding attachments and contain deep conceptual meanings, which strongly influence our drive to acquire, retain, or relinquish them. In both the endowment effect and hoarding disorder (HD) research had focused on the degree that a fear of loss produces overvaluation by owners. There is evidence for this at both the behavioral and neural level, for example with self-reported negative emotions and activation in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex when one struggles to relinquish a good. However, there is also evidence from both fields that positive appraisals, motivations, and attachments participate in this process, with supporting activation in the dopaminergic mesolimbocortical system (e.g. nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex). These processes appear continuous between typical and clinical populations and with decisions about rewarding items in other contexts and species, such as food storing in rodents and offspring care in mammals. More research is needed on the degree that our attachment to and protection of goods reflect ancient neural systems for offspring care. We also need to study participants from other demographics and levels of wealth, and to consider how task framing shifts the proportion of associated negative and positive emotional states.